'Relax at Home with TrainerTroy'

'Relax at Home with TrainerTroy'

Really Rude

So teaching Yoga reveals so much to me about communicating with others something I love and have learned. I see so much at the front of the room. I have always been a 'watcher' and notice all the little details. This week so far I have seen more guys in Yoga which is a good sign, we guys need to loosen up. I had a student say to me that they took another teachers class and the teacher hurt their back. I asked how and they said they told them to do this posture and it hurt her back. All I could say is do not do the posture, but I was thinking why would you do a posture just because someone told you to? I always tell everyone to do their own postures, to make it their practice, but whatever you do, make it to the end of the class. Which brings me to my next point. I subbed for a teacher this week and about 1/2 way through people would get up one by one, about five of them, making a lot of noise and roll up their mats, take time in the middle of class to put their shoes on ect. and leave. Who knows why they were leaving, but if they knew they had to go, wouldn't it make sense to be by the door doing your practice? If they had no reason to leave, they just did not care for the class, they could have learned so much more in patience by staying until the end and doing other postures they liked. I am so glad I have learned to let reactions within me pass without attaching to them so it did not bother me. Secondly, funny lady came in to class half way, walked up front, threw out her mat on the floor with a big bang, startling me, and began to practice. I just smiled...gym Yoga.
Happy Yoga to you.

Diary of a Yoga Instructor

Tuesday a.m. class:

Class was full, not much space. Lots of smiling faces. The class before was over 5 mins late which gave us a late start. Funny, no room up front for me to put my mat down except just in front of the stereo which means no one can see me in the mirror should I do a posture example. Started class with a breathing exercise, which I have heard many teachers do not do at the gym, but regardless of where it is taught, breathing is the foundation of Yoga and we are not really doing Yoga if we are not breathing properly. So I do it anyway. Class seemed to go well. I explain that a Mudra is a sacred hand gesture with a purpose. You don't go to reach for something over head on a shelf and kind of bend your arm and have a weak wrist and make a feeble attempt to take whatever your reaching for down, so why would we do a weak armed overhead reach? In ½ Moon Standing I have to continuously remind people to extend the arms and grip the hands. It is a challenge as an instructor to know when to shut up and just let some in the class do the postures incorrectly. That explains why when I take some peoples class the instructor just says three or four generic instructions and then are quiet and ½ the class is doing the posture incorrectly and potentially hurting themselves.

I was inspired to teach Warrior three on the right side in the flow and forgot to instruct it on the left side. So my class is probably feeling imbalanced all day and wondering why they are walking in circles…joke. Wonder why everyone claps at the end of Yoga, feels awkward to me as if I had just done a performance. A thank you means so much more, not to be ungrateful; it just does not seem to fit with Yoga.

Confessions of a Yoga Instructor

So, I keep hearing that if I want to have a blog it needs to be me being 'real'. I have been trying to figure out what might be interesting to others that may know me. I am pretty much a home body when I am not traveling the world so was not sure where to go with this. Then it dawned on me, the reason I teach Yoga is because I learn so much about Yoga from seeing and hearing what others are going through. So I decided I would try to blog about my experiences, good and challenging as a Yoga Instructor.

So starting today, without being to specific or naming names, I am going to share little insights of the Yoga classes I instruct on a daily or weekly basis, what I see from my perspective from all four corners of the room. As my friends can tell, not much slips past me.

First a little background. I had studied meditation with Diane Ross in Orlando after a tragedy in my life as a coping mechanism for many years. I knew the benefits of getting still. After leaving L.A., I reevaluated my life to find something I could do in relation to my passions, art, theatre, and fitness that would help others and that I could make a living at. That led me to Personal Training. Being a Gemini, I knew I wanted something else to go along with training or I would get bored and a friend in Kansas of all places, suggested Yoga. The very first class blew me away. Even though it was a 'gym' Yoga class I instantly went into meditation while moving and before I knew it I had completed crazy postures I never thought I could do and the class was over. I was hooked. Turns out there was a teacher training coming to Whichita, I went and loved the technical aspects of the postures. I got absorbed in the technical and forgot about my meditative experience until years later in my first Hot Yoga class. I hated it, it was 'hell' Yoga in Key West and swore I would never do it, but secretly knew that I had had to meditate to get through it and was again hooked. I became obsessed with Hot Yoga and thought about being a Hot Yoga instructor and dreamed of owning my own hot Yoga studio. I know that the discipline and mental focous I learned from hot Yoga is what got me though my marathons But the further I got into Hot Yoga, the more I realized that it is pretty much devoid of the deeper, meditative side of Yoga and the marriage of the two is what I seek.

So I started to look for a 'real' Yogi. Through many trials and many Western teachers I deducted that I wanted to find an 'original' Yogi from India and learn the real deal…………..

'See You There'

'See You There'

'Stop Stress Now Tips'

'Stop Stress Now Tips'

'Stop Stress Now Tips'

'Stop Stress Now Tips'